Pryor and the politics of provincialism

Provincialism — that sense that Arkansans have limited use for the world beyond Arkansas's borders — has been a defining characteristic of the state's politics and society for its entire existence. Territorial Gov. John Pope characterized it as "a terrified truculence toward new ideas from outside." More recently, provincialism has shaped the political careers of a father and son named Pryor who have achieved statewide success. As Mark Pryor's public statements and advertising blitz in recent days have shown, he intends to ride the sentiment through one more election in 2014.

In the most devastating event of his political career, David Pryor lost a race for the U.S. Senate in 1972 primarily as a result of veteran U.S. Sen. John McClellan hammering Pryor on campaign contributions from outside labor unions. Just two nights before the runoff vote that would propel McClellan to an upset win, the veteran senator ridiculed Pryor's contention that Arkansans had dipped into their cookie jars to send him small donations. McClellan closed the debate: "This is no cookie jar nickels and dimes. ... Big, out-of-state contributions to Pryor. They total $79,877.16. ... Yes, that's a cookie jar — quite a cookie jar indeed."

With this lesson learned about the potency of provincialism in Arkansas campaigns, David Pryor turned the tables on Congressman Jim Guy Tucker in a U.S. Senate runoff election six years later. Pryor hammered Congressman Jim Guy Tucker for his lack of allegiance to "those values we treasure in Arkansas." "Almost three-quarters of the time," Pryor's closing ads trumpeted, "Jim Guy Tucker disagreed with his fellow Southerners and voted with Northern liberals in Congress ..." Pryor won the primary handily to capture McClellan's seat.

As he followed his father to the Senate in 2002, Mark Pryor employed the same tactics. The first Pryor ad in that race against Sen. Tim Hutchinson closed with him raising the plaque from his father's Senate office desk, saying, "Arkansas Comes First." It was to be the mantra for the Pryor campaign. As the fall campaign began, the state Democratic Party began a series of ads that was the second punch in Pryor's provincialist strategy. All carried the tagline "Washington Has Changed Tim Hutchinson." A focus on Hutchinson's "change" meant making the case that a "callous" Hutchinson, who had voted against federal programs popular in the state, was "not one of us." Of course, the attacks on Hutchinson's "change" also served as a double entendre with an eye to the Republican's divorce. These skillfully choreographed messages allowed Mark Pryor to stay positive and parochial while his allies echoed the parochial and poked subtly at the personal.

In a race destined to be the toughest fight of Pryor's Senate career, the younger Pryor has returned to familiar turf in responding to attack ads from both the right and left in recent days. Using New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (the primary funder of a large-scale advertising buy focused on Pryor's vote against expanded background checks for gun buyers) as a foil, Pryor opened his campaign with an attack on the outsider's attempts to influence Arkansas politics: "I approve this ad because no one from New York or Washington tells me what to do," he concludes. "I listen to Arkansas." The attacks from the right have centered on Pryor's votes for the passage of Obamacare. Here, too, Pryor has played the Arkansas card by attaching himself to the unique "private option" plan for expanding health access.

While Pryor is once again playing the politics of provincialism that is in his political DNA and has served him, his father and others so well over the years, the world has changed from the days when folks actually believed that Arkansas was the only state that could survive if a fence were built around it to prevent anything from coming in or going out. While more provincial than most places, Arkansans now recognize their innerconnectedness with the rest of the country and world and the value of those connections. Moreover, from Bill Clinton's presidency to the reshaping of Arkansas politics by the Obama presidency, the state's politics have proved newly permeable to outside forces. While Arkansas may still "come first," we now regularly see elections where national tides overwhelm such parochial interests. It may be the most promising script available to Pryor, but it's less potent than at any point in the state's history.

Speaking of Mark Pryor, David Pryor

Arkansas Business reports on a speech Tuesday by University of Arkansas Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz to the downtown Little Rock Rotary Club in which he went through his earlier announced eight priorities for the campus, but also said pointedly that the Razorback stadium expansion was not on that list. /more/

Friends of former U.S. Sen. David Pryor report that he has moved out of a rehabilitation
facility in Fayetteville and is continuing rehab at home. /more/

Through a family friend, I've gotten an update on retired Sen. David Pryor, 82, who has been hospitalized at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville since suffering a stroke Monday. The outlook is optimistic. /more/

David Pryor, the former governor and U.S. senator, has suffered a stroke and is recovering following surgery, the University of Arkansas announced in a news release. /more/

Here's the Sunday night open line. I've included some video, done by shaky hand-held iPhone, during a reunion Saturday night at the Darragh Center of former employees of the Arkansas Gazette, which closed 25 years ago this month. David Pryor gave an eloquent talk on Arkansas newspapers /more/

UPDATE: The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees voted 8-2 this morning to approve a $160 million expansion of Razorback Stadium, despite a plea from Trustee David Pryor to opt out of the big college athletics "nuclear arms race." /more/

The University of Arkansas distributed at 5:23 p.m. today answers assembled by Athletic Department officials and others to questions raised by UA Board of Trustees member David Pryor about a proposed $160 million expansion of Razorback Stadium and other athletic facilities. /more/

A health problem has kept David Pryor away from this week's University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, but it has not kept him from submitting a detailed list of 33 questions about a proposed expansion of Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, a $100 million project. /more/

The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees will meet next week and its agenda includes a proposal to hire a project manager for UA Athletic Director Jeff Long's proposal for a $100-million-plus addition to the north end zone of Razorback Stadium. UA Trustee David Pryor has questons. /more/

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